HEX (Helsinki) Market Overviews

Helsinki Stock Market Overview
27/02/2006-03/03/2006

Finally, it is the first week of spring. During these five days all OMX Helsinki indices went a little bit down: the lowest decrease was -0.87% and the sharpest decrease was -1.68%. However, it was not a big trouble for several companies which had a significant increase in a share price. Three companies increased by over 10%. About 55 firms had a decrease in a share price between 1% and 5%.

The most significant share price’s increase over the week was in Exel Plc (EXL1V) shares. Exel Plc is a company from Materials main list. Its core services include contract logistics, consultancy services and other. Company’s turnover is 6.3GBP. Over the week share price increased by 14.87%, reaching 13.67 EUR.

Stromsdal Corporation (STMBS) announced its financial results for 2005 on February 28. The company is producing and marketing high quality graphical board. Graphical board is used in greeting cards and postcards, posters, folders, and in covers of books, different publications and catalogues. In comparison with the previous year, all the figures got better. Net sales, for example, grew by 8.5%. Stromsdal Corporations B share’s price increased by 12.74% to 1.77 EUR.

The Lemminkäinen Group (LEM1S) operates in all sectors of the construction industry: civil engineering, building contracting, technical building services and the building materials industry. The share price of The Lemminkäinen Group went down significantly by – 7.33% (from 37.34 to 34.82) this week (week 9, 2006). Such decrease can be explained by two reasons:

• IKEA has announced the termination of its contract with Lemminkäinen’s subsidiary Lemcon Ltd concerning the construction of the MEGA shopping centre in St. Petersburg. The value of the contract was EUR 92 million. The project had reached about the half-way point and was scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
• According to claims in the media this week, the ready-mix concrete produced by Lemminkäinen's subsidiary Forssan Betoni Oy for the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant project does not meet the quality requirements set for it. However, Lemminkäinen refutes these claims as being completely untrue.



ByInga Gorbunova
Kristine Grecuhina
Jekaterina Jaroslavceva